Runner

by A. J. Summer

  One of the waitresses looks up and sees me standing in the window. She waves up to me. I smile and wave back. Kelsey is a sexy blonde with big soft eyes the color of young cornflowers. She has a tight body and a big appetite for the fun stuff in life. Her happy attitude on life is also contagious. She can fill a room with it and then some. People walk away from her smiling, and they don’t even know why.

  We hooked up in the months I stayed at the hotel, and for a while there, I thought it might work between us, that she might be the one. Nothing can make you feel like a good guy than a girl who is always looking at you with a smile on her face and naughty thoughts on her mind. Even if you are a really bad person, like me. For a while she made me forget.

  But it didn’t take me long to start making excuses why I couldn’t see her anymore. Something in my mind just snapped. Fear? Maybe. No one is safe around me. Or maybe I just love torturing myself. So I manned up and told her it wasn’t working for me. She took it extremely well. So well that she first stripped herself and then me, then made sure we said goodbye properly. Best damn break up, ever.

  Since then I’ve only had one other encounter with a woman. Fuck, that makes it sound like a damn alien invasion. Little green men in a metal, saucer-shaped spaceship kidnapping my ass and poking me with a cattle prod. I assure you, I was not experimented on by extra-terrestrials. This experience was mind blowing, yes. Ass-clenching good, yes. Knees shaking like I’ll never be able to walk away from that girl, yes.

  A one-night stand, that’s what it was. With Talon, Ana’s feisty redhead friend. I can’t even believe I let that happen. Ana got herself kicked out of a club again, and Mike refused to go pick her up. I felt sorry for the girl being out alone so late and took the drive into the Square to go get her. When I got to the club, Ana and Talon were sitting on the curb outside of the club. Even as I drove up to them I could see Ana was wasted. Her hair was a mess, and her shoes were dangling from her fingers.

  The headlights of the car fell on the girl sitting next to her. Talon was sitting with her head resting on her arms. Her dark hair covering her face. I thought she was drunk as well and that I’d be stuck carrying both of them to the car. But when I walked up to them, Ana started crying and slurring about how much Mike hated her. And he does, but that’s just because she’s so damn difficult, especially when she drinks. And I think she does that just to piss him off. And their break up wasn’t exactly civil. She shouldn’t have taken his damn dog when she split.

  Talon spoke to Ana in soft, soothing words and, oh my blue aching balls, did that sweet voice send a jolt straight up my cock. I stumbled a step back and took a deep breath. I hadn’t even seen her face yet, and I already wanted to push her up against my car. It completely caught me off guard. I don’t get reactions like this to girls unless it’s…never mind, back to Talon. Talon put her arm around Ana’s waist and gently lifted her and led her to the car. Talon wasn’t drunk at all. Not yet anyway. I opened the back door, and Talon helped Ana lay down on the seat, then she turned to me, dusted off her hands on the ass of her jeans and stuck her hand out to me.

  “Talon Blake,” she said, staring at me with daring brown eyes. Those were the kind of eyes that mock you into doing something stupid, something really stupid, just so you can prove to this girl that you are man enough to breathe the same air as her.

  “Runner,” I said, reaching for and shaking her hand. “Just Runner? Is that even a name?” she scoffed. “I could ask you the same thing, Talon. That’s a pretty weird name. Isn’t that a bird’s fingers or something? I don’t want to be named after a bird’s fingers,” I said.

  She laughed but didn’t say anything about my lame attempt at flirting. She settled into the passenger seat. “I think you’d make a great Nail, because that’s what it is, a finger…nail,” she joked. Her brown eyes were dancing with mirth. A nail, I could go for that.

  I walked over to the driver’s side, smiling to myself even though I had a shitty day. A couple of sentences spoken with Talon and I already felt so much better.

  When I was done belting myself in, Talon leaned in-between the front seats and took half a bottle of tequila out of Ana’s bag.

  “Cheers, it’s been a long, dry night for me,” she said and tipped the bottle into her mouth. Some of the liquid spilled from her lips and trickled down her chin. The clear droplet clung to her skin as it slid down slowly, a seductive dance just for me. I watched the droplet until it finally disappeared beneath her clothing. That was the first time I wanted to taste her skin. And I knew if I didn’t start driving this car I was going to do something stupid, like fuck her in a parking lot with her friend passed out in the back seat. She swiped her fingers over her chin and stuck them into her mouth. I was trying so hard not to pay attention to Talon and the way her jeans clung to her fit little body that I didn’t even ask her where to drop her off.

  By the time we stopped at the cabin I craved tequila and, fuck, I craved her. I pushed my door open, eager to get away from the smell of Talon and booze. I hate the smell of booze, but somehow the smell mixing with the scent of Talon had me popping a strain in my jeans.

  I was tempted to leave the girls outside and tell Mike to sort them out, but instead of going inside, I walked around to the passenger side, opened the door, grabbed the tequila, and swallowed the last quarter of the bottle. And then I stuck my tongue down Talon’s throat. I kissed her hard, I kissed her fast. I coaxed her tongue into my mouth and sucked even harder. But she didn’t push me away. We were a tangle of bodies until we reached the hood of my car. I grabbed the back of her thighs and lifted her effortlessly onto the hood. It was just too easy. The way our bodies reacted to one another. How she knew just when to push when I pulled. Talon gave as good as she got, and by the time I had my zipper down and her skirt around her hips, I didn’t care if anyone saw us.

  I screwed Talon on the hood of my car in our driveway flooded by security lights. Then I left her because I knew sex that good made men weak in their heads. A connection that explosive would incinerate, and I could already feel the burn. I locked myself in my room, and the next morning she was gone. I haven’t seen her since.

  The shrill ring of the phone on my desk snaps me of out my daydream about sexy one-night stands with a girl that could just mean trouble. I adjust myself and shake my head. Those thoughts are no good in my head. I’ve already died once.

  “Runner,” I say into the phone.

  “Runner, how are you, my boy?” Reno asks over the phone.

  “Good, thanks. What’s up?” Already I’m suspicious. Reno doesn’t make courtesy calls.

  “Veo paid,” he states.

  “Yeah, Veo paid.” I almost roll my eyes. He already knows that, so why he needs me, I don’t know.

  “Good,” Reno says.

  “Yeah, good,” I huff, anxious to get to the bottom of this conversation. Right now it’s going nowhere but my heart, which is already pounding faster.

  “Listen, Runner. Daniel Migelli is up to something. I don’t know what.” There’s a giggle in the background and my ears perk up. There’s a girl with Reno?

  He sighs and then says, “Watch your back.”

  The line goes dead before I can ask him about the girl. I’m left staring at my desk with a bleep in my ear. I put the phone down and sit on my big-ass chair. Instead of worrying about Daniel Migelli, the guy whose son I killed, I’m worried about my boss having a girl over?

  All those months holed up in the hotel at the Indigo, waiting for Reno to decide what to do with me, left me with a lot of time. I did a bit of research on Reno and the Migelli family. I found out some stuff I wish I’d rather not know.

  Reno had an affair with Daniel Migelli’s wife. Fathered a bastard son and made Daniel Migelli go crazy. But by the time Daniel went looking for her, the cheating wife and unborn child were nowhere to be found. Reno has a knack for making people disappear. I shudder at the thought of another pizza-faced Danny Migelli walking around somewhere. It’s enough t
o have one haunt my dreams. I don’t need another showing up at my doorstep.

  But then I remember the blond boy and woman in the pictures at the Parker residence. Is that the woman and child? This is all so messed up, no wonder Daniel Migelli wants to kill his own brother. Reno might be Daniel’s step-brother, but there’s a blood bond, nonetheless. You don’t steal another man’s wife. And Daniel Migelli is probably just waiting for the long-lost love child to show up. Is he planning on killing him? If Daniel Migelli’s brain works like I think it does, he probably thinks Reno should suffer the same fate he did. A son for a son. But I’ve never heard Reno speak of a son. And I’ve never heard Reno speak of a wife or a girlfriend. I didn’t even know Reno was seeing someone. I don’t even think Reno knows that I know about his history with the Migelli family. But like I’ve learned in the past, there is nothing Reno Parker doesn’t know.

  I pull the latest profit report closer and start my work for the day. Both the Indigo and the loan house figures need to go over to Reno. And he doesn’t like to be kept waiting, even if he just filled my head with a load of what ifs.

  * * *

  When my neck starts cramping and my eyes betray me with visions of little white numbers dancing in front of my eyes, I push the papers back into their folders and grab my keys. I managed to get everything done for the profit report, but all the other shit running in my head is driving me crazy. I drop the two folders on the desk at reception and ring the bell. The girl at the front desk has a thing going on with one of the security guards, and until now I’ve let it slide, but if she’s not going to be at her desk when I need her, I’m going to have to talk to her. She comes running down the hall from the fire escape with the guy from security close on her heels. She pats down her hair and straightens her skirt on her way over to me. I ignore her and instead point at the guy. “What’s your name?” The guy straightens and comes to a stop. “Billy Douglas, sir,” I pick up the phone on the front desk and dial the extension for the control room. Stephan answers immediately.

  “Move Billy Douglas to the evening shift. I don’t want him and his girlfriend on the same round. There’s no work being done here, and I don’t pay people to screw around on duty.” I put the phone down and look at the girl who’s hanging her head in shame. Mission accomplished, maybe she’ll start doing her job now.

  I text Jonah to let him know his friend is letting me down by messing around on the fire escape and that I’m on my way to the loan house. I wave to the head of security when the sensors beep wildly as I exit. I forgot to use the employee exit and instead used the guests. I just want to medicate the fuck out of the headache and tell the guys about the strange phone call I had from Reno.

  When I turn onto the street of the loan house, I see Mike is already back from Bailey. I’m tempted to ask if he saw Mia or if Jase is back at Ray’s, but if Ana’s with him, I’ll have to wait.

  I walk up the stairs slowly, but when I get to the door, I almost lose my front teeth. The door swings open suddenly. The smell of cinnamon hits me first, followed by something wild and just a hint of citrus that instantly has my body on alert. All my senses thrill at her presence. Talon. I’d know that smell anywhere. It’s been stuck on my skin since that night. Only she has this reaction on me. Claim, break, conquer. And I’m not even a sadist.

  She completely ignores me while walking past and takes a seat on the stairs. There’s no way she didn’t see me. But she doesn’t even give the slightest indication that she knows me. And here my body is burning up just by her smell. She takes out a cigarette with her blood red nails and lights it with a shiny silver Zippo. Fuck, she’s even more beautiful than I remembered. The dim moon and tequila haze didn’t do her any justice. If she knows I’m staring, she doesn’t let on. My eyes devour her tight, jean-covered ass.

  What the fuck, she’s not even looking at me. I slam the door behind me, frustrated that it even bothers me that a one-night stand didn’t greet me. Probably because I’ve never had a one-night stand quite like her. Well, to hell with her!

  Mike and Jonah are playing video games, and Ana is sitting at the table texting on her phone. She’s got a huge smile on her face, and I know she isn’t texting Talon because Talon is sitting outside looking like a goddamn wet dream. Again I’m thinking Ana looks almost normal, not the usual screeching banshee that’s throwing stuff around and screaming at everyone. My eye catches a glimpse of Talon through the window. She stretches her legs and tilts her head up to the sky. Lithe and sleek like a feline, probably just a dangerous. She doesn’t look at all bothered by my showing up, so what is my hang-up with this girl? And why can’t I stop staring.

  I turn my attention to my two partners who seem to play games for a living. “Mike, Jonah, can I see you in the office?” I say calmly while the headache pounds away in my skull.

  Three heads turn in my direction at the same time. Ana puts her phone down and folds her hands in her lap.

  “Now,” I say again because nobody is moving.

  Still nothing. It irritates the fuck out of me. I point at Ana but stop myself from yelling at her when her eyes go wide. And I really want to yell at her for bringing Talon here. It’s bad enough that she knows our secrets, I don’t need her friends snooping around either. No matter how hot they are. Maybe I’m just pissed because Talon ignored me, but deep down I also know nobody can be trusted. And everything is just a little too messed up right now.

  Nobody knows what happened between Talon and me that night, so I doubt they’ll think that’s why I’m irritated. Jonah and Mike think I’m still banging Kels when the feeling hits. Maybe I should go see Kelsey after this? Get rid of some of this pent-up sexual frustration. I picture Kels spread naked on the big bed at the casino and nothing, not even a lazy stir. Instantly, I feel bad for even entertaining thoughts of using her like that. She deserves better than that. I’m an asshole for thinking I can substitute Kels for Talon. Talon is fire, she consumes.

  Talon opens the door and a slight breeze follows her inside. It blows a few strands of brown hair against her lips and everything, everything, just goes to shit. The only thing my mind registers is want! I want Talon so much it can only turn out bad. I’ve been here before. I lose. I always lose in the end. The only way I win is to stay unbreakable. I can only stay unbreakable when I have nothing to break me. I can’t help the rage that boils inside of me because of Talon. I’m like a fricking jackhammer around this chick, and it’s only the third time I’ve seen her. All I want to do is bang, and bang hard. Why does she have to come and mess with my head?

  TALON

  Runner. Damn, I didn’t realize how much I wanted to see him again.

  That was, until a few seconds ago when I almost knocked his face off. But seeing his ridiculous do-me face and screw-me hair also reminded me how he left me half naked on the hood of his car. I must admit I can’t fully blame the tequila for what happened that night, but who does that? Screw and then just walk away?

  I wanted some fun, and I wanted it with him, but that was not how I pictured it ending. I wasn’t looking for cuddles afterwards, but I didn’t expect the cold disinterest afterwards either. I still had my nails in his back while he spurted his seed all over my damn thigh when he went into emotional shutdown. He just became cold!

  That night I was so nervous I swigged half the bottle of Cuervo before I even realized it. Ana told me about Mike’s sexy-but-unattainable friend. Ana tells me a lot of things when she’s drunk. Even when my head was swimming in tequila, all I wanted to do was rip my nose off so I wouldn’t have to smell Runner anymore. Gouge my eyes out so I couldn’t see his devilishly sexy face. But instead I let him use me. Like the cheap skank he probably thinks I am. I stub the cigarette bud down on the step angrily and take a deep breath. It’s time for me to leave. I don’t need Runner to muddle my thoughts; for all I know I might jump him and let him do me on his desk. No tequila to blame this time. Runner is obviously not boyfriend material, not that I want one, but it’s also plain to se
e he has serious issues. I have more important things to worry about right now.

  I open the front door but stop seconds later, dead in my tracks. Runner shoots me a killer glare, and his lips spread into an evil sneer. Maybe it’s suppose to make him look scary, and it does; it makes him dangerous, and I’m a sucker for getting mixed up with the wrong kind of people. Maybe he’s just pissed off to see me again. Runner storms off to the back offices. Well, fuck him!

  Mike and Jonah get up and follow him to the back of the building. It’s definitely the latter—he is pissed at me for being here. “What was that?” Ana whispers softly. “What?” I answer on a shrug. “That,” she says, pointing in the direction that the guys left and then at me. “Nothing,” I say with my best poker face. It’s true for the most part. I’m not sure what I did to get that glare from Runner. Maybe he doesn’t like bumping into girls he screwed before. Ana watches me for a second before she drops her eyes to her phone. “You’re probably right. Runner doesn’t like people around unless it’s for business.”

  My heart beats a little faster when I realize what that means. It’s not that Runner doesn’t like me, he just doesn’t like strangers, even ones he banged a little while ago. I’ve seen how closely Mike watches Ana. I suppose doing the work they do, you have to be careful. Especially when you work for Reno Parker. A shiver runs down my spine when I think back to this morning before Ana phoned me to meet her at the garage. It was definitely a welcome intervention. I’m not looking forward to my date tonight. “I should probably go,” I say to Ana. I’m not eager to get ready for what I have to do tonight. But it has to be done. This has to work. “Uhm, okay, I’ll ask Mike when they finish up in there. Runner seemed a bit uptight when he came in,” she says, then she goes back to typing on her phone with a huge smile on her face. “Who are you texting?” I ask her.

  “James, I’m meeting him tomorrow.”